As anyone who has handled a fishing rod will appreciate, the hook and lure at the end of the line when not in use presents a potential safety hazard. Most people engage the hook with one of the rod loops and tighten the line to prevent the hook from releasing from the rod. This is only marginally effective because the hook is not fully covered and further the hook has a tendency to release from the loop. Furthermore, many lures have a series of hooks which can not be effectively hidden by the rod in this manner.
Different proposals have been made to overcome the above problem. Examples of these proposals are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,256 issued Oct. 15, 1991 to Truax, U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,003 issued Jun. 15, 1984 to Deutsch, U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,772 issued May 23, 1989 to Gillespie, U.S. Pat. No. 2,993,293 issued Jul. 25, 1961 to Blout, U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,361 issued Apr. 5, 1977 to O'Reilly and U.S. Pat. No. 2,767,502 issued Oct. 23, 1956 to Reynolds.
The Gillespie, Deutsch, Blout, Reynolds and O'Reilly constructions are all in the form of box-like structures which must be opened to insert the hook and/or lure and which must then be snapped shut in order to trap the hook and/or lure in position. This can be particularly awkward if the user has only one hand free to both place the hook in position and to open and close the hook container.
The O'Reilly and Gillespie structures require a separate attachment piece to first be fitted to the rod with the hook container then securing to that separate attachment piece.
The Blout structure has a clip located on one side of the rod with the clip being normally closed but being bendable to an open position to fit around the rod. Again, this is awkward to mount to the rod, particularly when only one hand is available.
In the Reynolds construction, the hook and lure container must be held open after the hook and lure are inserted and the container snaps closed directly around the rod to hold it in position. Again, this is an awkward operation.
In the Deutsch construction, a separate side clip is provided which attaches to one of the line loops on the rod. The attachment of the container in this particular case is relatively simple, however it places stress on the weakest part of the rod, i.e. at the loop.
The Truax construction comprises an open ended housing for receiving hooks and lures. The fitting of the hooks and lures into this open ended housing would appear to be much simpler than what is required in the other prior art references referred to above.
Truax shows two different ways of mounting the container to a fishing rod. One of those methods requires the use of VELCRO.TM. fasteners provided on both the rod and to the inside of the housing. The other of those methods uses a series of clips spaced from one another at different locations around the container housing. The clips vary in size for fitting with various different rod diameters. Two of the clips are located about 90.degree. from the line fitting slot of the Truax housing and if either of these clips are used, the housing sits off to one side of the rod where it is readily exposed to be jarred from the rod.
One of the Truax clips is located at the base of the housing but again, opens sideways relative to the direction in which pressure would be applied on the housing for inserting the hooks and lure into the Truax construction. This sideways opening clip is not on its own able to accommodate different rod thicknesses and further does not provide a mounting that would resist the housing from being knocked sideways off of the rod.